Walton Small Boats Head is a traditional high standard finale to the year for rowers – with more than 600 crews racing in four divisions making it a challenging event.
This year Ardingly Rowing Club came away with 6 wins from a small racing squad aged from their early 20s to mid 60s.
Ian Andrews and Colin Barratt take highest honours on the day winning both their sweep-oared pair event and the double scull.
This change of discipline, with just time for a cup of tea between races, demands great skill both physically and mentally.
At the other end of the age range Harry Beedell and Richard Byrne-Smith won in their double scull and Elliott Green and Adam Wright won in their pair – both crews showing great form on the day.
Finally in single sculls, demanding self-reliance and a bit of cunning steering to cut through the opposition, came wins from Alex Dombrowe and Joanna Toch. Joanna beat her nearest rival by over 30 seconds.

The rest of the squad didn’t disappoint and there was a sprinkling of second place finishes so the year ended well.
Coach, Mostyn Field, was happy with today’s performances but knows there are better results to come.
There is much to do in 2015!

The Women and Development Squads at Ardingly Rowing Club ended 2014 in style with two wins and an overall good showing at Saturday’s Head of the River race in Burway (near Chertsey).
It was a tough 3000m course against the stream on a sunny but frosty day.

The Women’s Masters D quadruple scull of Lucinda Weis, Jo Evans, Joanna Searle and Joanna Toch were fastest women’s crew on the day which is a great accomplishment as they beat more than 100 crews across 3 divisions.
Joanna Searle and Joanna Toch also won the Women’s Mas D double event closely followed by Clubmates Jo Evans and Ursula Tanner.
Nicola Plank and Michaela Tallant made a very impressive showing at 2 categories above their racing status.
From the Development squad, Hope Warren and Rosie Cottell came second in their J16 double by just 6 seconds despite one of them being 15 and the other just J16 by 3 days and many others finished well up the rankings too.

In particular, the WJ15 quad finished in the top third of their event which bodes well for their push for regional selection for the Spring Inter-Regional Regatta.
There was a good showing from Alex Scovell in the J16 1x who came in just behind scullers from two schools with great rowing reputations, and his father, Carlos, raced his first ever race and is looking forwards to the next one as are the rest of the squad who raced for the first time.

This is a great performance from the Club and will inspire all athletes to keep training over the Christmas break so they can start 2015 in winning ways too.

British Rowing, the National Governing Body for our sport, honoured Robert Simpson of Ardingly Rowing Club at a Volunteer of the Year Awards luncheon last week held in the Waterman's Hall, London.
The event was to thank just 31 volunteers from the 25,000 registered rowers in England.
It highlighted the wide range of roles they play, each vital to keeping rowing clubs alive, from regatta management and accounting skills through to coaching others and fundraising,
which in Bob’s case also includes transporting boats, repairing equipment and emptying the bin!

Bob joined Ardingly Rowing Club in its infancy 19 years ago and for all of that time has given his time, enthusiasm and skills to the Club to see it develop and prosper.
He is currently Treasurer and Company Director, and his wife, Ros, reports that he spends up to 35 hours a week,all unpaid, working in various ways to keep the Club running smoothly.
Bob still manages to make time to enjoy a row himself, but his greatest joy is seeing his 14 year old grand-daughter, Mai Sussex, learn to love the sport too.

Photo above: The Thames Region Winners with Bob second from left.Copyright Simon Way.

Ardingly Rowing Club’s Women’s Squad achieved a new milestone last weekend at the Veteran’s Fours Head of the River on the Tideway in London.
The club was represented by a record breaking three women’s crews, in addition to the two men’s combinations that also raced very successfully at the event.

The Men’s squad had an excellent day with the Masters F coxless four of Ian Andrews, Slavo Radosevic, Colin Barratt and Stephen Banks winning their event beating five other crews
– a super result for them and for the Club.
We were also very pleased that the Masters C quad came in 9th overall which beat their target of a top 10 finish.

Fastest of the ARC women’s crews (by just over 1 second) was the WMasB quad of Caroline, Lucinda, Janet and Nicola, just ahead of Jo(S), Sarah, Linda and Jo(T), racing in WMasD quads.
Both crews finished in the top 100 finishers (92nd & 93rd respectively), with the WMasD quad being placed second in their category, behind last year’s Master’s National Champions from Wallingford RC.
The WMasC quad of Carol, Jo(E), Stephanie and Ursula were placed 166th of the 189 competing crews

On Saturday 18th October 17 members of Ardingly Rowing Club travelled to Weybridge to compete in the Weybridge Silver Sculls Head of The River, raced over 3300 metres on the River Thames.
The event, staged in four divisions, attracted an entry of over 500 crews from clubs as far afield as Glasgow and Shanklin (IoW).
The club was represented by crews drawn from the Men and Women’s Senior Squads and juniors from the Development Squad, bringing home two wins and a number of high placed finishes.
The wins were for Harry & Richard in IM32x (14:34) and Sarah & Linda in WMasC 2x (17:21).

On Saturday 13th September 36 members of Ardingly Rowing Club competed in the Club’s annual single sculling regatta over an 800m course on Ardingly Reservoir.
Competitors included both male and female members of the club and ranged in age from J13 to Veteran E.
Conditions on the reservoir were tough with a strong cross wind favouring the more technically proficient competitors.
This meant that some of the more senior members of the club were able to hold their own amongst their more youthful and exuberant opposition.
Racing took place in Divisions with scullers progressing or regressing through the divisions depending on the result of their previous race.
Every sculler had four races with the final round producing close racing in all divisions.
The youngest members of the club enjoyed a ‘round-robin’ event in double sculls which also produced some close racing.